Even Heart Attack Cannot Stop Smoking among Depressed Smokers

Published on July 16, 2008 5:31 AM

A study showed that people who have depressive symptoms need more time to quit smoking. Even those people who had heart attack could not give up this bad habit.

Not only smoking can provoke heart attacks but also other bad habits. For example people who drink excessively, eat fat food, do not exercise and stress-out, are also at risk of having a heart attack. These kinds of habits can be severely damaging to the human body, and can ultimately prove to be fatal.

Dr. Anne N. Thorndike said: "Depression is common among heart attack patients and the findings show those issues have to be addressed before you can really make much progress with their smoking."

Thorndike added, "Quitting sharply reduces the death rate among smokers with heart disease, but at least 40 percent of smokers start again within a year of having a heart attack. Meanwhile, heart attack patients with depressive symptoms are known to have trouble following recommendations for reducing their risk of future cardiac events."

Dr. Anne N. Thorndike investigated 245 smokers who had been hospitalized for a heart attack or unstable angina. Dr. Anne wanted to see how much are linked smoking cessation success and depressive symptoms.

All of the patients received smoking cessation counseling in the hospital and for 12 weeks afterwards, and were randomly assigned to treatment with either bupropion hydrochloride (an anti-smoking medication sold as Zyban) or an inactive placebo.

Twenty two percent of the patients had moderate to severe depressive symptoms. These individuals had worse craving and withdrawal symptoms, and also scored higher on a test of their nicotine dependence.

The researchers found that the depressed patients were 2.4 times more likely to start smoking again than their non-depressed peers.

This research helped Thorndike show to other people, how hard is to quit after a heart attack, and be on the lookout for depressive symptoms that could make quitting even more difficult.

The truth is that smoking is an expensive, inconvenient habit that puts people’s health at risk.